Although
the U.S. has spent millions to build incinerators in Afghanistan to
avoid exposing anyone to toxic smoke from open burning, American troops
sent waste to an Afghan-operated open pit for five months last year,
according to an inspector general’s report issued late Monday.

The
Afghans continued to burn their own dangerous waste -- including
batteries, tires and plastic -- in the pit because they didn’t want to
spend money on fuel to run new, U.S.-provided incinerators, which stood
unused behind a locked gate, the report found.

The Special
Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction’s report said the
incidents violate a 2010 Pentagon prohibition against using such pits
except in extraordinary circumstances. U.S. forces did not notify
Congress, as required, to seek an exemption from the ban, the report
said.

Waste outside an incinerator provided to Afghans. (Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction)

“This
is another case of U.S. taxpayer dollars going up in smoke,” said John
F. Sopko, the inspector general. “Congress was never told about it --
and worst of all, the health of U.S. troops has been put needlessly at
risk.”
U.S. forces at Shindand Airbase in western Afghanistan sent
waste to the Afghan burn pit until June of last year, Sopko said, and
Afghan forces continued to burn waste in the pit until October.
Among
the items burned were batteries, plastic, tires and aerosol cans,
Sopko's office said. Those items are prohibited from being burned in
open pits under the Pentagon’s 2010 order.
In response to a draft
report on Shindand, the U.S. Central Command, or Centcom, said it had
directed U.S. forces in Afghanistan to find out why the pit was used. It
said U.S. commanders are encouraging Afghans to use incinerators, but
have no authority to compel them.

“The
Afghans fail to use the incinerators because they do not perceive that
the health benefits of using the incinerators are worth the cost of the
fuel to run them,’’ Centcom said, according to Sopko’s report.
Centcom
denied that prohibited items such as batteries, plastics, tires and
aerosol cans were included in U.S.-generated waste, the report said.
Sopko
asked Centcom to determine which officials were responsible for
authorizing the burn pit and to hold them accountable. He requested a
written response within 90 days.
“Toxic smoke emanating from
Afghan burn pits poses a threat to the health of coalition personnel
serving with Afghans at Shindand Airbase and will not be confined to the
Afghan-controlled side of the base,” Sopko wrote in a letter to
Centcom.

U.S.
forces burned waste in a pit before the incinerators arrived in 2011 as
part of a $4.4-million facility, according to the inspector general’s
office. The incinerators broke down and were repaired – yet U.S. forces
sent waste to the Afghan burn pit for five months afterward, the report
said.
A Department of Veterans Affairs allergy specialist told
Congress in 2009 that exposure can increase the risk of death from lung
cancer or cardiovascular disease.
Alarmed by veterans’ complaints
of lung ailments from exposure to burn pits in Iraq, Congress ordered
the VA to set up an open registry for such complaints. The VA’s Airborne
Hazards and Open Burn Pit Registry went online last month.
Veterans’
groups and their supporters in Congress hope the registry will lead to
disability payments for burn-pit victims similar to benefits received by
Vietnam veterans for exposure to Agent Orange. It took decades for the
Vietnam veterans to begin receiving benefits.
But veterans’ groups have criticized the VA registry, saying it is riddled with software glitches.
About
10,000 veterans have attempted to register but failed, said Daniel
Sullivan of the Sgt. Sullivan Center, a nonprofit that advocates
research on post-deployment illnesses. But Sullivan said the VA told him
9,500 veterans had registered in the first three weeks.
Adrian
Atizado, of the advocacy group Disabled American Veterans, said he was
unable to register his health problems from burn-pit exposure because
the registry could find no record of his Gulf War service.
The VA media affairs office did not respond to requests for comment.
Veterans
of Operation Desert Shield in 1990 and Operation Desert Storm in 1991
are eligible to register, along with those who served after Sept. 11,
2001, in Iraq, Afghanistan and Djibouti, a small country on the Horn of
Africa where the U.S. has a military base.
Veterans’ advocates
say exposure to toxic smoke from burn pits can cause respiratory
illnesses and long-term health problems, including bronchitis and
cancer. They want more government-funded research.
“There needs to
be research that hits the gold standard that would allow [the VA] to
say that, like with Agent Orange, veterans who were exposed to burn pits
have developed long-term health conditions,” Atizado said.
U.S.
Rep. Timothy H. Bishop (D-N.Y.) has introduced legislation requiring the
Defense Department to set up three centers to study, diagnose and treat
aliments caused by burn pit exposure.
The VA’s website says
current research does not suggest that exposure to burn pits causes
long-term health problems. The VA says widespread fine dust and
pollution in Iraq and Afghanistan may pose a greater danger than the
pits.
But the VA also says, “Veterans who were closer to burn-pit
smoke or exposed for longer periods may be at greater risk. Health
effects depend on a number of other factors, such as the kind of waste
being burned and wind direction.”
Although toxins in burn-pit
smoke may affect the skin, eyes, respiratory and cardiovascular systems,
the VA says, “Most of the irritation is temporary and resolves once the
exposure is gone.’’
The VA says it is processing disability
applications by veterans “on a case by case basis’’ for ailments that
veterans say were caused by burn pits.
Richard Weidman of Vietnam
Veterans of America said he is not aware of a single veteran who has
been approved for disability benefits based on health problems linked to
burn-pit exposure.
The independent Institute of Medicine
concluded in 2011 that it didn’t have enough data to determine whether
exposure to burn pits had long-term health effects. The institute
studied burn pits at Joint Base Balad in Iraq, where veterans attributed
leukemia, lymphoma, congestive heart problems, neurological conditions,
bronchitis, skin rashes and sleep disorders to burn pit exposure.
“Service
in Iraq and Afghanistan in general – rather than exposure to burn pits
only – might be associated with long-term health effects,’’ said the
study, sponsored by the VA.

The
institute recommended a long-term study to “determine their incidence
of chronic diseases, including cancers, that tend not to show up for
decades.’’
A study of 80 Iraq and Afghanistan veterans with
respiratory problems, published in 2011 by the New England Journal of
Medicine, found a strong association with a lung condition, constrictive
bronchiolitis, that is rare in otherwise healthy young adults. Possible
causes were exposure to burn pits, a sulfur mine fire in Iraq, and
desert dust storms.

Sopko’s
office has issued three previous reports alleging improper burning of
waste in burn pits on U.S.-operated bases in Afghanistan.
Last
December, Sopko reported that the U.S. spent $5.4 million on
incinerators that were never used at Forward Operating Base Sharana in
eastern Afghanistan, where waste was burned in an open pit. “This
project appears to have been a complete waste,’’ Sopko said at the time.
In
July 2013, Spoko reported that an open burn pit was used at Camp
Leatherneck in southern Afghanistan, where four incinerators installed
at a cost of $11.5 million were not being used to full capacity.
@davidzucchino

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